My new (old) L-60 (pics)

[brion]

I received my new (to me) 1994 L-60 today and after a few hours of agonizing waiting for the guitar to acclimate to a safe temperature I got to open the original Larrivee branded case.  Thank goodness, it made it through the shipment unharmed.  This is the first Larrivee I have seen up close and personal.  I tuned her up and marveled at how low the action is.  I think it may be just a bit too low as I can get notes to buzz easily unless I fingerpick using light to medium force.  There is no pickup installed (though I may install a K&k Western Mini).  Higher action would probably increase the volume and sustain a bit as would medium strings, but I'm thinking that mediums would totally buzz out on this setup.  Speaking of strings, the ones on it are light or extralight gauge and the treble strings are golden colored like the bass strings.  The guitar sounds really nice and balanced the tone is pretty round for a steel string.  The way it is set up now would work great for amplified fingerstyle chord melody players.  I'm doing the fingerstyle chord melody thing, but acoustically for now.  I love the     1 3/4" width at the nut.  For a 14 year old guitar this is in excellent shape, there are a couple of small dings on the top and a few marks on the corners of the sides.  The frets have been leveled and dressed recently, but there is plenty of life left in them.  The neck profile was comfortable and I experienced no hand fatigue after playing for a couple of hours straight.  I didn't think about this until now, but the guitar has Schaller tuners and I hardly had to touch up the tuning for the whole 2 hours though I did go from standard to dadgad and back for 30 minutes in the middle.  I had recently bought a Gibson AJ from GC then the opportunity to trade for this L-60 came up.  I'm thinking the Gibson is going to get returned before the 30 days is up.  I don't have a need for a dread or 2 acoustics right now and could use the funds.  Overall I'm impressed with the Larrivee. The old style Rosette is cool and of course this is relatively rare being an L series with the oversized Soundhole as most of them were D's I believe.  Now I just need an OM-5 and a P-09     Here are some pics:

[Mr_LV19E]

  I think it may be just a bit too low as I can get notes to buzz easily unless I fingerpick using light to medium force.   Higher action would probably increase the volume and sustain a bit as would medium strings, but I'm thinking that mediums would totally buzz out on this setup. 

Looks like you got a great guitar, shes a real looker.

In regards to the medium strings, they will more than likely eliminate the buzzing with the present set up. You can usually get away with lower action with mediums than lights. You might have to give the neck a little less relief if you change to mediums from lights or extra lights.


   

[brion]

Looks like you got a great guitar, shes a real looker.

In regards to the medium strings, they will more than likely eliminate the buzzing with the present set up. You can usually get away with lower action with mediums than lights. You might have to give the neck a little less relief if you change to mediums from lights or extra lights.


   

Thanks.  The strings on it now are Martin SP+ 12-54 and they were just installed before the guitar was shipped to me.  They sound good but are too light.  I'll leave them on until they start sounding dead then I'll try some mediums and see how the setup feels then.  If at that point I'm not happy with the setup, I'll have my tech Jamon Zeiler look at it.  This guitar is set up like an Ibanez electric shredder type guitar so when I say it has low action, that's what I mean.

P.S.  I took my Gibson AJ back to GC today for a full refund 

[Ponte]

 
Love the rosette and the headstocK

[brion]

Thanks.

I'll take some better pics when the weather is better.

[Mikeymac]

Congratulations on owning a beautiful piece of Larrivee history!  I have a '92 OM-05 with the old rosette and I love it (and everything about the guitar - I've had it for 15 years now).

You'll get lots of opinions on strings around here - I've used the standard uncoated Martin SP's (both lights and mediums/phospher bronze) on my Larrivees for years and like them as much as D'Addario and others.

Martin also recently came out with a new fingerstyle string - 'FX' (http://www.mguitar.com/strings/display_set.php?display=154 ).

[Krefett]

Very 

It is a very limited guitar! It was offered in Germany in the 1993/1996 period! It could be, that it has the same laquer with open pores like my 00-20.

Very fine inlay!

Take care of it! It need´s no pickup! With it big soundhole I hear it´s sound in Germany, when You play it!